Best Science Photos of the Week - April 14, 2012
By Live Science, 14 April 2012.
| 1. Space Penguins |
 Credit: DigitalGlobe |
| Emperor penguins in Antarctica are far more plentiful than previously thought, according to a study released this week in which researchers used extremely high-resolution imagery snapped by satellites to estimate the numbers. [Read full story] |
| 2. Keeping Baby Warm |
 Credit: British Antarctic Survey. |
| One of Antarctica's emperor penguins sitting on its tiny chick to keep the little one warm. [See more penguin photos] |
| 3. 4-Foot-High Hail, Oh My! |
 Credit: Potter County Fire Department via NWS Amarillo |
| Feel free to believe your eyes: According to the National Weather Service of Amarillo, Texas, this picture is the real thing. Between 3 and 4 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, April 11, 2012 a storm dumped massive amounts of pea-sized ice balls about 25 miles north of Amarillo. Wind and subsequent rains carved the hail into drifts four feet high, as seen here with a member of the Potter County Fire Department. [See more amazing science images] |
| 4. Comet Demolition Derby |
 Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/Bram Acke, KU Leuven, Belgium. |
| A young star called Formalhaut that is home to at least one alien planet is also ringed by a vast, dusty cloud of comets, like our own solar system. But there's a big difference: There may be as many as 83 trillion comets there, with collisions destroying thousands each day, a new study suggests. [Read full story] |
| 5. Manatee Mystery |
| Manatees have sensitive hearing, but that doesn't necessarily keep them safe from passing boat propellers, a new study finds. [Read full story] |
Credit: | 6. Skin Shedders |
 Credit: David Duneau |
New research reported this week reveals why it's good to get naked for some organisms. The study found the moulting process, in which crustaceans and insects lose their exoskeleton in order to form a new one may actually protect moulting animals from parasites. Shown here, a water flea (Daphnia magna) undergoes moulting. Like all crustaceans, this tiny creature must moult to grow. [Read full story]
|
| 7. A Dinosaur at Sunset |
| A palaeontologist-artist has revealed what a meat-eating dinosaur called Unenlagia (whose name means "half-bird") may have looked like when it roamed the Earth some 85 million years ago during the late Cretaceous. [Read full story] |
Credit:
[Note: The images and stories of UFO Galaxy, Amur Leopards, and Northern Lights Expedition in the original article are not included in this post as they have appeared in my previous posts Best Earth Images of the Week VI and Best Space Photos of the Week V.]
Top image: Emperor Penguin (left), A water flea that moults (right).
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